Adelaide University faces rising cost for research journals

Adelaide University students have expressed concern their learning could suffer if the university library cuts back on overseas research journals.

A report by librarians to the Academic Board says some journal subscriptions might have to be cancelled unless funding is increased.

It says the library budget was cut by about $800,000 in 2011 and a recent decline in the value of the Australian dollar could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of buying research journals next year.

Lawrence Ben of the Student Representative Council said the library was at the heart of the university.

"I would like to see Adelaide University respect the place of the library by increasing funding," he said.

Mr Ben said there was a risk of Adelaide students getting a second-rate education if they could not access journals from overseas.

The University of South Australia library is facing similar financial pressures.

But librarian Stephen Parnell said extra US currency was bought when the Australian dollar was above parity.

"It provides some comfort. Where you find that things aren't quite as good is that universities are always introducing new areas of research and bringing in new researchers, so of course there's always some interest in acquiring new titles, that's where the pressure comes," he said.